TRP: Goro and Mishka (Collaboration)
COYOTE Day 383. After Mishka talks to Bee, he goes home to talk to Goro about what he just found out. Mishka really needed someone to talk to. He wanted to go home, find someone, shake them, and yell. Preferably Goro, because Goro might actually be helpful. Goro was good to yell at. Mishka had discovered this. Whenever Mishka grabbed Hansel and shook him and yelled at him, Hansel tended to become alarmed. Goro did not. Very few things alarmed Goro Voronin: eldritch abominations talking to him; people putting unexpected things in his pockets; people using mind-altering magic on him; or loved ones being threatened. Anything outside of that list didn’t even make him blink. You could skin a corpse in front of the guy and he wouldn’t ask you a single question. Mishka really appreciated that about the man. Goro was also equally paranoid as Mishka, so he never gave Mishka shit for inspecting the entire room before they talked. And he was good at being blunt and cutting through bullshit. What if Pride spied on their conversation, though? He needed to assume that Pride was watching them. So instead of immediately heading back to the castle, Mishka spent the day lazily in town, pretending to be unconcerned. Eventually, when he got around to it, he visited a local mage to buy a few scrolls: A couple waterbreathing spells, Banishment, Polymorph, and two scrolls of See Invisibility. Once he was done shopping, he casually returned to the castle. He went to his room, bypassing the complex lock, and put the scrolls away. While filing them, he opened each one, and—carefully, without using any verbal or somantic components—he silently cast the See Invisibility spell from his scroll. . He glanced around the room. Typically, if someone was scrying on him, the scrying spell would produce a small, invisible sensor floating nearby him. A glowing ball of light. If Pride were spying on him right now, there had to be a sensor somewhere. He didn’t see one. That meant either Pride wasn’t spying on him right now… or Pride didn’t using scrying spells the same way mortal did. He’d have to take the risk. He went to Goro’s room and rapped on the door. LINA "Who is it?" COYOTE "Mishka," Mishka said. "Got weird shit to talk about. The usual. Got notes." LINA Goro unlocked and opened his door, one eyebrow raised. COYOTE "It's about Aziz," Mishka said, and he felt that sick wave of anxiety and panic hit him again (did Pride fucking kill Sam's mom? He kept thinking about the way Pride fucking cradled Sam all the time, and it felt sinister, now, looking back on it, a calculated show of affection to manipulate Sam, to keep Pride's claws in him). "My room or your room? Don't want to-- don't want to talk. Out here. Closed doors. Please." LINA Goro blinked a few times, caught off guard by how anxious Mishka sounded. He jiggled his doorknob. "Um. Either? Which d'you want?" He stepped back, inviting Mishka in if he wanted. COYOTE Mishka hesitated briefly-- he hadn't been in Goro's room yet-- then slid in, figuring it was probably safer than anywhere in the castle. "Can you do that thing where you... that spell? In the staff, I think? That lets you see shit. And check." His eyes roamed the room. "Check if someone is looking. I just want to see and make sure. I wish that damn antimagic device thing was fixed. Maybe we could use it." LINA At the suggestion, Goro immediately scowled at the corners of his room. Someone better not be. He walked over to his desk, where his staff of eyes was propped against the wall, and snatched it up. He stood in the center of the room and tapped the staff on the floor. He glared at the corners of his room again, and the ceiling, and ducked down to look under the furniture too. He straightened up and shook his head at Mishka. COYOTE Mishka sat down in a completely uncomfy, practical, hard oaken chair. He needed to get Goro some more comfortable furniture. "Okay. So," Mishka said, digging the notes out of his breast pocket. "This must just be paranoia. And I think I'm overreacting, so I need you to... give me some fucking perspective, here. There was this paladin, Bee-- this paladin. Right? I heard about them through Larkin. They said they're... a friend of Sam's. Right? And this paladin is convinced that Aziz is, well. Evil, or something, I guess. And they made a really fucking convincing case, Goro. Really convincing. I have concerns." LINA Goro frowned, confused. "Sam doesn't have any friends. Except... us, I guess." COYOTE "Right. See, that's what I said," Mishka said. "They said they're a paladin of Lathander. What god is that? Aren't they like-- I don't know, some snooty goody-two-shoes demon-hating god? I mean, I assume. Right? Guard god." LINA Goro nodded slowly. "Yeah. Yeah, snooty's how I'd describe him. Wants everyone else -- gods and people -- to follow in his footsteps." COYOTE "Right. Yeah." Mishka scrubbed his hands through his head. He needed to focus, and explain himself cleanly, and straightforwardly, so Goro knew what was going on. He straightened out his notes, flattening them on Goro's desk. "So this paladin. Bee. They say that a few years ago, they rescued Sam from an asylum, then sort've... kept him for observation inside a temple to Lathander. I assume he asked them for help, perhaps. He's made references to how he's asked people for help before and it turned out very badly for him. Doubtless this is the incident he's referring to. Doubtless he explained his patron was fighting to enter the Mortal Plane and asked for their assistance. Bee appears to have... befriended him. "Bee claims that, initially, Sam stayed with them willingly. Over time, however, he became unwilling, and they became his captors. Bee claims they conferred with Aziz for over three hundred nights--" He's scrawled down the exact number, but it had become smudged. "And although they initially found Aziz charming, they believe he is a demon, and his nature is evil, and once he comes into our world, he'll commit genocide against the mortal races." It sounded insane, now that he said it out loud. It sounded like a snooty paladin pushing their anti-demon agenda. Mishka wasn't certain anymore. He rubbed his face. "I'm worried they're right," he said. "I don't know. I don't know. You talked to him. Aziz, I mean. You made a deal with him." Maybe the demon had been fucking with Goro when it made that deal with him. Mishka didn't like that. Bothered him. LINA Goro nodded along patiently, thinking well, duh, and obviously, until Mishka got to the part about genocide against the mortal races. He swallowed. "Genocide?" COYOTE "Aye. This paladin, Bee, made the point that this creature-- Pride-- is a demon, and demons are... what was the word Bee used? He's the pinnacle of Pride. And if he decided that all his kin are beneath him and decided to exterminate them one by one, then, well, he might take the same point've view about mortal folks as well." He wasn't sure if that was right or not. Mishka did not know anything about demons. He figured Goro might, though. LINA Goro ran his fingers through his hair. Well, that was a little different. Goro wished he'd gotten to meet this "Bee" motherfucker to get a read on them. Golly gosh the demon might commit genocide sounded like something a Lathanderian would come up with on their own, but he also kept thinking about how Morgan and Mask had told him Pride was being dishonest. 'Cause one loophole, if you said you weren't planning to take over the world, was that you were planning to kill everyone in it instead. "What made you decide they weren't full of shit?" Goro tried. Mishka wasn't... gullible, exactly, but he didn't share Goro's intensely skeptical nature, either. COYOTE Mishka scrubbed his hands through his hand again, blowing out a noisy, annoyed noise. "They said something fucked up," Mishka said. "Something about Pride and Sam. And it got in my head, I think. And it's making me biased, I think. Irrational. Emotional. But I though, ah, Goro, he's clever, he's got good insight on things, he'll be able to tell, maybe, see it more objectively than me." LINA "What was the fucked up thing?" Goro said, wasting no time. COYOTE "Bee says... that Pride... is stalking Sam," Mishka said. "Bee says that they communed with their god. And they investigated. And they spoke to Pride for three hundred nights. And they used seers. And they discovered that--" He gestured. "The first time Pride encountered Sam, he was an orc dying on a battlefield. And Pride offered to save the orc, and the orc refused and died. And Pride was bored, see, because he'd killed all his siblings. And this soul interested him. This person who'd wisely refused him. So Pride found him again, a second time, as a woman in a city, and took the form of a tiefling named Aziz here on the Mortal Plane to observe her, and married her. And then when she died, he left again, because no other mortals interested him. "And then later," Mishka said. "When Sam was reincarnated again. Sam was alone. He had no friends. Grew up on the streets. Was fucked up, and... alone. And Pride watched him and waited, letting him suffer, until at last, once Sam was at his weakest, Pride visited him in a dream and... bombarded him with all these memories of being loved and protected. And Sam wanted that so badly he gave in." Mishka swallowed. "And Bee says," Mishka said, vaguely ill. "That Pride... did that on purpose. Bee says that Pride-- killed Sam's mother and made sure Sam was broken and alone all his life. Bee says Pride used Sam to burn down his own home with his friends inside to isolate him. Bee says Pride broke him on purpose so Pride could step in and save him, whisper in Sam's ear about how Pride was the only one that loved him, the only safe person Sam could trust." Mishka wet his lips. "And it sounds true," Mishka said helplessly. "I don't know if it's true or not, but it sounds true. It sounds like a thing a person would do. What the fuck, Goro?" LINA While Mishka talked, Goro sank into a crouch for a bit, then sat cross legged, staff on the floor beside him. He frowned deeply in thought, chewing his nails. Tried to think back over all his interactions with Pride, to see if he thought that sounded right. Thing with those kinda people, though, was you usually couldn't tell at first. "It bugs you 'cause it reminds you of..." He faltered, eyeing Mishka warily. COYOTE "Yeah. Yes. That's something he'd do," Mishka said. "I mean. It's not bullshit. It's not just the ramblings of an overzealous paladin. That is an... actual thing... somebody would do." That somebody had done. To Mishka. "I figured you'd be more objective about it than me right now, is all." LINA "Have you talked to him since then? Pride, I mean. or Sam." COYOTE "No. Was only... a few hours ago." LINA Goro reached into his pocket and dug out the sending stone. "I'm gonna talk to him. Pride." COYOTE Mishka stuck his arm with his jacket over his face and made a muffled noise into it. He knew Goro would handle it fine, but still. Was distressing, he supposed. LINA "It's fine," Goro said bluntly. "He ain't gonna get to me." He closed his eyes and hunched over the stone. Hey, I need to talk to Pride tonight. IZZY All right. LINA Goro shoved the stone back in his pocket and straightened up, checking to make sure Mishka was alright. COYOTE “What if Bee’s right?” Mishka said. “What if that thing is the world’s more manipulative abuser?” If that thing was like Aleksei, Mishka didn’t want Goro anywhere fucking near it. LINA "Well," Goro said, carefully considering what might put Mishka's mind at ease. "We're all in this together, right? He ain't gonna get to us. We're gonna kill him." COYOTE “He could get to you,” Mishka said. “Right now. If you go talk to him.” LINA "Oh yeah? How? What d'you think he's gonna say?" COYOTE Mishka chewed the inside of his mouth. “Suppose he likes you,” he said uncertainly. “Because you’re clever, and cunning, and persistent, relentless, and— you like creepy things, and aren’t put off by demons. And you’re really fucking loyal, Goro, once you like someone and want to be on their side. Suppose the demon sees all of that and likes you. Maybe he thinks you’d be a good minion, like Sam. Suppose he covets you and decides to steal you away. “Suppose that this time you go talk to him, and he puts your fears at ease and coaxes you into liking him and wanting to help him. Suppose he convinces you to be sympathetic towards him and plays up how cruel and unreasonable the Church of Lathander has been to him. And then you get loyal. Then he gets his fucking hooks in you and takes you away. Subtlety, over time, he starts... slowly separating you from your loved ones. Turning you against me. Against Larkin. Against Killing off Hansel and Amari so carefully you don’t know he was the one that did it. Pulling strings.” LINA Goro held back a scoff through most of it, and even rolled his eyes a little on the turning against part. But then Mishka got to the killing part, and Goro frowned and bit the inside of his cheek. "I'd get 'em back," he insisted. "I'd get 'em back, and they'd tell me the truth. Or Mask would tell me the truth. Somehow, I'd find out." COYOTE Mishka nodded jerkily, though he didn’t really believe it. Goro didn’t seem that concerned about what Mishka was saying— maybe because Goro didn’t think he was valuable enough somebody would want to steal him, or maybe because Goro thought he was too clever to fall for it. Or, most likely, some combination of both. He knew he wasn’t going to convince Goro, so there was no reason to push the point. Pride was very old and very clever. If he decided to kill someone off to separate Goro from his loved ones, he’d do it carefully, the way he maybe killed Corrine. He’d make it look like an accident so nobody knew— or he’d steal Hansel’s soul so Hansel couldn’t be resurrected— or he’d make sure Hansel’s remains were destroyed or missing so he couldn’t be easily brought back to life. Mishka brooded over this a moment. LINA Goro could tell Mishka wasn't an ounce reassured. "If there's one thing you gotta understand about me," he tried, "it's that I'm a cleric. I don't do shit without the approval of my god. 'Cause if I don't got that, whatever I'm trying to do doesn't work. I got the big guy keeping an eye out for me, alright?" Goro remembered how he'd seen Mask, and Mask was actually pretty damn small. Whatever. "No demon's gonna get his claws in me." COYOTE “Psh. Gods,” Mishka said. Then he ran his hands through his hair again. “Ah. You’re right. I mean, I don’t trust your fucking god, but. I suppose I trust you.” LINA Goro frowned. "Why don't you trust my fucking god?" Yeesh, him and Hansel both. COYOTE Mishka attempted to be polite. “I mean, I’m sure he’s an excellent god, as far as gods go.” LINA Goro kept frowning. COYOTE “The best one,” Mishka said. “Probably. I assume. If there were a scale. Surely he’d be a ten out’ve ten. As far as gods go.” Mishka didn’t know shit about most gods. Correlon was good and looked out for the elves, but Hansel kept grumbling about what fuckers they all were, and honestly Mishka was starting to think he had a point, though he wasn’t sure what that point was. Hansel didn’t really like anything bigger than himself and Mishka didn’t really like anything bigger than Hansel either. LINA Goro kept frowning, and blinked a few times. Yeah, whatever. He got to his feet, picking up his staff of eyes and returning it to its resting spot against the wall. It frustrated him a lot, the way Hansel and Raef and now Mishka talked about gods, not seeming to realize he was touched by one; godliness was part of him. It wasn't like he was totally alone; he had Amari and Luci, who understood, and Larkin at least had a Maskarran's reverence. But he couldn't help feeling sore about shit that made him feel like even more of a weirdo than he already was. "I'll talk to him tonight," he muttered. "Report back." COYOTE Ah, Goro. Mishka wasn’t quite sure what he’d done wrong, but he knew it was something. “Will you stay in Hansel’s room tonight?” Mishka said. “Or yours?” He’d like to... be there, in case something went wrong. LINA "Hansel's, yeah. Easier to fall asleep that way." Goro unhooked his bracelet and started chewing it thoughtfully. "Gotta figure out the right questions to ask him so I can figure out the hell's going on." COYOTE “Aye. Fair. Might not matter. He could be watching this conversation. Might already know.” Mishka itched. He rubbed his arm. “Hey.” LINA Goro cast another suspicious glance around his room. Fine, asshole. Take a look. I got nothing to hide. He looked back to Mishka. "What?" COYOTE Mishka paused, trying to figure out how to ask. “Why do you trust Mask?” LINA The question caught Goro off-guard. He leaned against the wall and stared into space while he thought about it. "I... can just... feel him." He knew that wasn't a satisfying answer. He went back to chewing on the bracelet, hoping more words would come to him, but they didn't. COYOTE “I kind’ve want to ask how, but I don’t want you to feel... fucking... y’know, weird about this stuff,” Mishka said. Where he was from, clerics had a very transactional relationship with Correlon. They provided worship to strengthen their god, and their god provided them with magical power and social status. There was no trust involved. It was not even a question. LINA Goro kept thinking. "Kind of how I can... feel that Hansel loves me?" Was embarrassing to say, but Goro figured that out of anyone, Mishka was most likely to understand him when he said that. Even if Mishka didn't experience it just the same way. COYOTE Mishka puzzled about that a moment. He wasn’t used to thinking about gods as people with... personal relationships, or opinions. “That’s not how I’m used to it working. I suppose I thought being a cleric was more... hm. Transactional. More like... you give them worship and spread their word, so they give you power to accomplish those tasks.” He rolled this around in his head. “I suppose that’s why it’s hard to trust him. Mask, I mean. I suppose I figured he was looking out for own interests. Not looking out for you, Goro, necessarily. But you’re saying he loves you. Like Hansel?” LINA "I don't know that he loves me," Goro said quickly. "If he does, it's probably in a different way than Hansel. I just mean... I know Hansel loves me, 'cause I can feel it. And I know Mask is looking out for me, 'cause I can feel it." He flushed a bit, and added, "I don't usually feel love that way, I mean, it's just that... Hansel's is really... warm. It's like hot water in me." God, he sounded fucking nuts. COYOTE Mishka tried to figure out how to say that was adorable without offending Goro, then decided he was fine offending Goro, then said, “That’s adorable.” LINA Goro flushed even worse and looked at the ground. "Pfff." COYOTE “Everyone else is going to think it’s adorable, too. At your wedding. When you’re saying your vows and shit. They’re all going to say, Ah, look, Goro loves his fiancé, and Hansel loves Goro, and think it’s precious. And they’re going to right, Goro. It will be precious.” LINA Goro dragged his collar up to cover his face, making an indistinct wailing noise. COYOTE Mishka was silent for a moment, smug in his victory. Then he said, just to get one last shot in, “You love your fiancé.” Then also, just one more: “You know what’s even worse than that?” LINA Another wail, with a slightly questioning tone. COYOTE “In a couple weeks when you get married, you’re not going to love your fiancé anymore,” Mishka said wickedly. “You’re going to love your husband.” LINA Goro was burning hot under the cover of his shirt, but he still grinned like a fool. He fidgeted uncontrollably, hopping from foot to foot. "Shut up. You love your husband too." COYOTE “Slander.” LINA "Nuh uh." COYOTE “Well, you’ve got me. I can’t refute that.” LINA Goro nodded in agreement, still hidden behind his shirt. COYOTE Mishka snorted, amused. “Well. Anyway.” He stood up and brushed himself off. He still felt uneasy about Sam, and now he felt even more uneasy about Pride getting his hooks in Goro, but he felt oddly better. “I still don’t get the whole god thing, but I suppose I don’t have to,” Mishka admitted. “I trust however you feel about it.” LINA Goro pulled his shirt down just far enough that he could look over the top. He nodded wordlessly in acknowledgement. Couldn't think of much to say. COYOTE Mishka slid the hard oak chair back into place, then raised his hand, briefly, in good-bye, and unlocked the door. LINA "You can leave it open," Goro said, muffled through the fabric. COYOTE Huh. That seemed new. Mishka paused a moment to look at Goro, then left. And left it open. LINA end COYOTE TRP: Mishka and Goro (Collaboration) Summary: Day 383. After talking to Bee, Mishka becomes paranoid that Pride is manipulating and abusing Sam by isolating him from any type of support network. Mishka turns to Goro for blunt advice. Goro decides to talk to Pride directly that night in order to figure out what’s going on. Mishka heckles Goro about the upcoming Hansel/Goro wedding; Goro is deeply embarrassed. Category:Text Roleplay